Tag: National Channels

  • GEC ad volumes saw 33% rise in 2020: TAM AdEx

    GEC ad volumes saw 33% rise in 2020: TAM AdEx

    MUMBAI: 2020 was a difficult year for the television broadcast space, courtesy Covid2019 pandemic. Every genre struggled hard to ensure saliency in terms of content generation and maintaining ad volumes. In the early days of the lockdown, GECs were hit the hardest because the production schedules were canned and there was no fresh content. They were forced to rerun the old episodes of popular shows and were unable to create fresh content until the Unlock phase started and that too under strict guidelines. The situation forced the advertisers to rethink their strategy. 

    Television Audience Measurement (TAM) released an analysis on ad volumes and active brands on GECs in 2020.  Ad volumes on general entertainment channels (GECs) last year has grown by more than one fourth over that of 2016, according to the TAM AdEx-Mirroring Y 2020 for advertising in GEC genre. It witnessed 33 per cent rise in 2020 compared to base year 2016. After ad volumes on GECs troughed in the second quarter of 2020 due to the imposition of a nationwide lockdown, they witnessed resurgence during the third and fourth quarter on the back of a gradual Unlock. 

    It also pointed that the month of October and November had the highest ad volume share (10 per cent each) due to the festive period. True Shield Hand Sanitizer was the top brand during the period of April, May, June and August in GEC genre. 

    In 2020, top three channel genres retained their positions compared to 2019, among which the Hindi GEC genre topped during both the periods. The Hindi GEC witnessed a growth of one per cent since 2019. Tamil GEC has continued to take 15 per cent of the pie in both the years. Malayalam and Kannada GEC observed positive rank shift. Top five channels genres accounted for more than 65 per cent share of ad volumes during both the periods.

    The report stated that the count of advertisers and brands dropped by 38 per cent in quarter two of 2020 which recovered by 48 per cent and 58 per cent respectively in quarter four over quarter two. Personal care/personal hygiene sector topped with 25 percent share of ad volumes followed by F&B with 22 per cent share.  Top sectors which included personal care/personal hygiene, F&B and services together added 57 per cent share of ad volumes which were also on top during 2019. The top four sectors also including hair care has dominated the GEC genre in year 2020.

    While the toilet soaps category maintained leading position during 2020, with seven per cent share of ad volumes, ecom-media/entertainment/social media climbed by five spots to achieve the second rank, replacing toilet/floor cleaners. The report highlighted that the top ten categories belonged to food and beverages sector. Biscuits category was the only new entrant in the top ten, replacing hair oils. Positive rank shift was observed in milk beverages and ecom-media/entertainment/social media categories. In terms of growth, hand sanitisers category witnessed highest growth of 10X, followed by range of toiletries with six times growth.

    Among the top advertisers of the year 2020, HUL topped the list followed by Reckitt Benckiser India. Top ten advertisers contributed 58 per cent share of GEC ad volumes. Marico was the only new entrant in the top ten advertisers’ list. P&G, ITC, Cadburys India, Wipro, Godrej Consumer Products, Colgate Palmolive India, Nestle India and Marico were in the list of top ten advertisers with a positive rank shift compared to the year 2019. Clinic Plus Shampoo was the top brand during 2020, followed by Lux Toilet Soap. The top ten brands together added 10 per cent share of ad volumes during 2020. Also, six out of the top ten brands were from HUL while three belonged to Reckitt Benckiser.

    2020 was a difficult year for the television broadcast space, courtesy Covid2019 pandemic, but regional channels have managed to hold their market. According to the report, regional channels had 3X ad volumes compared to national channels. Regional and national channels had 77 per cent and 23 per cent share of ad volumes respectively during both the years (2019-20).  HUL and Reckitt Benckiser India were the top two advertisers present in both regional and national channels during 2020. In GEC genre, regional channels had three times more ad volumes compared to national channels. Apart from this, Docubay Media and Attica Gold Company were the top exclusive advertisers in national and regional GECs respectively.

    One of the most affected genres on television in terms of ads during the Covid2019 lockdown was the GEC genre. The broadcasters were dependent on reruns of famous and old shows as shooting and production stopped due to restrictions. This led to a steep decline in adverts on GECs. From July onwards, when fresh content arrived, it propelled the advertising in the GEC genre, logging 330+ hours of average ad volumes per day. It saw a spike of  74 per cent more compared to lockdown period from April to June 2020. Tally of categories grew by 24 per cent whereas advertisers grew by 95 per cent and brands rose by more than 2X during Unlock.

    The report further highlighted that prime time was the most preferred timeband on GEC genre, followed by afternoon and morning time-bands.  Prime time, afternoon and morning time bands together added 72 per cent share of ad volumes.

    Ad commercials of 20-40 seconds were most preferred for advertising on GECs during both the years. Commercial advertising added 55 per cent share of ad volumes whereas promos had 45 per cent share in 2020.

  • &pictures takes interactivity a notch higher!

    &pictures takes interactivity a notch higher!

    MUMBAI: &pictures, the channel known for providing ground-breaking interactive content to its viewers since its launch, created a first time record of a LIVE interactive initiative with Bollywood’s superstar, Aamir Khan. Taking interactivity to the next level, &pictures hosted Aamir Khan in a LIVE event where he interacted with his fans through calls, tweets and sms. Separately, the channel also gave an opportunity to select lucky winners across India to watch the film with Mr. Perfectionist himself in Mumbai.

     

    During the interactions, Aamir disclosed that ‘Chale Chalo’ – the making of ‘Lagaan’ is very close to his heart. It was not only the story and script that appealed to him but also the on-set experiences that made this film special for him. Interestingly, while Lagaan was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker who is known for his remarkable cinematic style, ‘Chale Chalo’ was shot by an amateur cinematographer. Supremely talented director-producer and TV chat show host, Karan Johar added to the excitement as he came with Aamir to curate the event and the screening of the movie. Karan Johar who once said that ‘Aamir Khan is Indian Cinema’s game-changer’ was truly excited himself as he found the real life drama and content of Chale Chalo really intriguing.

     

    Mr. Akash Chawla, ZEEL Marketing Head, National Channels, said, “&pictures being a true reflection of the subtle evolution of movies and movie viewing experience, has its positioning revolving around two keywords- interactivity and engagement. For this movie, we built up an extensive curiosity campaign to intrigue our audiences and we are very excited with the response we have received. It has been a pleasure to work with Mr. Aamir Khan and we look forward to creating any more such interactive experiences for our viewers in the future on &pictures”.

     

    Mr. Ruchir Tiwari, Vice President -Head of Programming, ZEEL – Hindi Movie Channels, said, “At &pictures we always aim at providing interactive content and Chale Chalo is the proof of the pudding. While the movie was an enthralling experience in itself, the live segments, tweets and sms’ by Aamir himself took created very exciting break content.”

     

    A very excited Aamir Khan said “This movie is closest to my heart. When we were making the film, we were not thinking of releasing it at all… we just made it out of passion. I am really excited that I have got this opportunity with &pictures to showcase my film to the television audiences.”

     

    Hurdles, obstacles, tears of joy, real emotions and feelings – ‘Chale Chalo’ had it all; and so did Aamir. &pictures gave its audiences a one of its kind opportunity to watch the film and have a t?te-e-t?te with their favourite star, the one and only, Aamir Khan!

  • &pictures calls the Twitterati

    &pictures calls the Twitterati

    MUMBAI: This June, &pictures, India’s first interactive television movie channel, known to air path-breaking content and bringing viewers closer to their favourite stars, is taking a step further by releasing Aamir Khan’s first unreleased movie on television. The actor known to be a perfectionist in every aspect is all set to showcase his only unreleased film on Sunday, June 8, 2014 at 8:00pm.

    &pictures is a reflection of the subtle evolution of movies and movie viewing experience in India, and its positioning revolves around two keywords- interactivity and engagement. Staying true to its positioning, the channel is engaging with its audiences through Twitter. Fans will get a chance to post tweets using specially created hashtags for the day and interact with Aamir Khan and Karan Johar. &pictures along with Twitter will also set up a ‘Vine Mirror’. The ‘Vine Mirror’ will help take a video with the help of just one push button which will then be uploaded on Vine from time to time while at the studio

    On this occasion Mr. Akash Chawla, ZEEL Marketing Head, National Channels, said, “We at &pictures always look for interesting innovations and integrations in making sure that we fulfil our promise of bringing our viewers closer to their favourite stars. We have invited fans to ask questions via #AAMIRANDYOU which will allow fans to come up close and interact with Aamir Khan and Karan Johar while watching his unreleased film this Sunday. We are extremely excited and look forward to creating a trend with such campaigns like no one else.”

    Collaborating with &pictures, Rishi Jaitly, India Market Director, Twitter said, “Twitter is the second screen of choice for viewers globally as they can interact with their favourite stars in real time and participate in live and public conversation about their favourite TV shows. During this particular broadcast, movie fans can watch with Aamir Khan and Karan Johar by engaging with them in real-time conversation on Twitter and catch a glimpse of behind the scenes on the sets of &pictures through six second Vine videos shared on Twitter and Vine. We are extremely happy to support &pictures in their initiative to get closer to their audience by delighting them with #OnlyOnTwitter moments .”

     

  • Aamir Khan’s first unreleased movie – Exclusive on &pictures

    Aamir Khan’s first unreleased movie – Exclusive on &pictures

    MUMBAI: Did you know that there is one film of Aamir Khan, which he says is the closest to his heart, and could not be release in the theatres? Aamir says that this movie unlike others is not fiction but a real life film. This June, &pictures, India’s premium television movie channel, known to be airing path-breaking content and helping viewers come closer to their favourite stars is taking a step further by releasing Aamir Khan’s first unreleased movieon your television screens. The actor known to be a perfectionist in every aspect is all set to showcase his only unreleased film on Sunday, June 8, 2014 at 8:00pm.

    This first unreleased movie of the actor – superstar is not a regular Bollywood run-of-the-mill film. Full of drama, love, dreams, action and tragedy, this movie showcases real content.It is different and engulfs Aamir’s feelings, hard-work and dedication, and includesentertainment in the truest form!

    There are a lot of firsts to this initiative… the channel known for providing ground-breaking interactive content to its viewers will now create a first time record of a LIVE interactive initiative with the only unreleased movie of Aamir Khan. This movie of the suave actor will see the channel giving a chance to select lucky winners across India to watch the film with Mr. Perfectionist. Alsofor the first time ever, the stellar actor Aamir Khan will be taking LIVE Call-in’s and answering questions to his fans during the breaks of the film. He will be interacting with his admirersand will give them a chance to ask him about his experience and talk to him about the movie, his performance and more!

    Commenting on this initiative, Mr. Akash Chawla, ZEEL Marketing Head, National Channels says, “We are very excited to have Aamir Khan on &pictures in the first ever LIVE conversation with audiences. This is truly India’s first ever initiative by any movie channel. Less than a year old, it is a matter of great pride for &pictures to have Aamir Khan on board for this amazing film. I am sure our viewers will love this novel concept.”

    Ruchir Tiwari, Deputy Vice President -Head of Programming, ZEEL – Hindi Movie Channels said,“We are absolutely delighted to be the channel that is spearheading this unique initiative. We constantly strive to carve a niche for &pictures and establish it as an interactive channel through its programming and content.”

    You don’t want to miss an experience that will go down in the history of Indian television, an experience that is revolutionary and radical! Stay tuned-in to &pictures on Sunday, June 8, 8:00pmonwards and pick up your phones to experience the magnitude of the channel’s pioneering yet entertaining initiative!

  • Zee Classic celebrates the life and works of renowned Director Basu Chatterjee

    Zee Classic celebrates the life and works of renowned Director Basu Chatterjee

    MUMBAI: Over the past 100 years, Bollywood has made spectacular contributions to the world of art. Beautiful portrayal of human emotions, innovations in the technical aspects of cinematography, actors and musicians of unparalleled talent – India’s film industry has a lot to be proud of. Keeping the mood alive, Zee Classic, India’s only Hindi movie channel shows films from the classic era of Hindi cinema. The channel has taken a step forward to enthral the movie lovers with a robust line up of evergreen movies and experience the magic of the Golden era of Indian cinema.

    Come March and the channel will screen works of Basu Chatterjee – one of the stalwarts of Hindi Cinema every Saturday from 1st March to 5th April 2014.  Basu da, as he is lovingly referred to, is known for his light comical take on issues revolving around the lives of middle class families.  The repertoire of his ‘middle-of-the-road’ films have catered to Indian sentiments of the time he came from and went on to be timeless classics which is enough to describe the legendary filmmaker.

    The film festival – Khatti Meethi Life includes a line-up of movies such as the comedy drama Pasand Apni Apni, romantic comedy musicals follow with Laakhon Ki Baat, moving on to a funny tale of Four old men Shaukeen, the beautiful love story Baaton Baaton Mein and Chitchor. The festival comes to a close with Piya ka Ghar – a movie about the ups and downs of living in India’s city of dreams and Bollywood’s home – Mumbai.

    Commenting on the channel’s endeavour, Mr. Akash Chawla, ZEEL Marketing Head, National Channels said, “Our film industry has grown manifold from where it started. There are new genres being explored and each artist comes with his/her own set of expertise and innovations.  In the field of arts, looking back to one’s roots is always a great source of inspiration. The themes and plots from the golden era are relevant to this very day. Zee Classic believes that such great works of cinema should not go unnoticed and hence we have recreated that evergreen era for the viewers of today. We have a great lineup of some of the best works of Basu Da for the audience and we look forward to offering many such specials in the coming future.”

    Flashbacks to good things of the past are a favourite for all movie buffs. With Zee Classic bringing you the best of one of Bollywood’s greatest movie-makers – this March is going to be a wonderful throwback. Here’s to Zee Classic standing true to the promise of bringing forth ‘Timeless Movies. Timeless Moments’ and many more movies from that unmatched era!

  • &pictures beats Movies OK on the digital platform

    &pictures beats Movies OK on the digital platform

    MUMBAI: The promise of &pictures being India’s first interactive Hindi movie channel is strengthened with the unique strategy adopted for the premiere of Chennai Express. The Chennai Express mania refuses to die garnering a staggering 5949 TVTs and propelled the channel to zoom ahead of competition. The Week 47 data issued by TAM reveals the following key highlights:-

    &pictures zooms past competition with 112609 GVTs on CS4+, HSM levels

    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    On the digital platform, &pictures has beaten Movies OK garnering 80129 GVTs

    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    Chennai Express garners higher Time Spent than that of Boss on Colors


    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    &pictures garners highest Time Spent in the Hindi Movie genre.

    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    Chennai Express on &pictures also zips past popular primetime GEC shows like Big Boss, Nach Baliye, CID, KBC, Crime patrol Comedy Nights with Kapil


    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    The channel had lined up an extensive and innovative marketing campaign including TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, OOH and Cable for this big ticket premiere that aired on November 23rd. Putting across a differentiated digital strategy helped the channel touch the pulse of the youth through Facebook, Twitter and the blogging community.

    The initiative of sending a reminder calls in Shah Rukh Khan’s Voice received a record breaking 153357 unique callers. Selecting four IndiBloggers to relive the journey that SRK and Deepika Padukone had done in the film is clearly a case of achieving success through customer-driven marketing innovation. The bloggers recreated the entire Chennai Express journey which engaged the audiences online. The same was supported by @AndPicturesIN to drive more conversations around the movie premiere. The activation which began on 18th November had four IndiBloggers (Karishma Rawat, Nandini Deka, Arvind Passey & Ramit Narang) travel via Chennai Express train from Mumbai to Rameshwaram. It proved to be an effective medium of getting the audience engaged with the blogging community who kept throwing them challenges enroute their journey. The link www.indiblogger.in/chennaiexpress had live updates from the 4 bloggers and they created record breaking conversations on twitter & Facebook.

    Talking about the marketing strategy, Akash Chawla, ZEEL, National Channels, Marketing Head, said, “The rise of social media and the increasingly connected customer makes us continuously think out of the box to engage them in newer and interesting ways. By allowing our viewers to experience a film in person before they see it in their own homes, we ensured that &pictures is synonymous with quality and a channel that puts their viewers first. This innovation in the online space has reaped us the benefit across platforms. It has helped us to overcome existing and emerging challenges and set benchmarks which we look to break again in the near future.”

    He adds, “Remarkably, the campaign saw an additional 500 tweets with #chennaiexpressandyou even after the film had premiered. The campaign successfully reached out to a whopping 1.4 unique Twitter users and received over 14 million impressions on Twitter. The impressions via IndiBlogger network was a staggering record 1 Million + and including the impressions generated by four bloggers traveling it comes to a whopping 6.6 million. Owing to the phenomenal response received by this activation, #chennaiexpressandyou was the most talked about topic on Twitter so much that we broke Twitter.”

    &pictures marketing strategy for the premiere of Chennai Express was a unique blend of traditional and digital mediums with innovation and differentiation.

  • Never-Ending Movie generates more than a million impressions!!

    Never-Ending Movie generates more than a million impressions!!

    MUMBAI:Whoever said ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’ would never have thought that India’s first interactive movie channel ‘&pictures’ would take that quote and turn it around. In just two days of the digital film going live, the country’s first crowd-sourced film has already sent the digital audiences into a frenzy, engaging around 15,000 users! Of these more than 30% of them have accessed the film through their mobile phones. The specially created Twitter hashtag #GiveMovieNamesWithAnd trended organically on the very first day of the never ending film going live in cyberspace.

    With the vibrant campaign page andpictures.in bringing in the most traffic, engagement levels are phenomenal with users who access it from desktops staying on the microsite for 5+ minutes, mobile net users staying on the site for 4.2+ minutes and page views reaching over 4 views per person. Though users have the option to participate through Twitter and Facebook, there is maximum fun on the campaign micro site which has led to exceptionally high stay time per user.

    Debashish Ghosh, Chief Knowledge Officer – EsselGroup, Technology and Digital Strategy while talking about the high user engagement on ‘the never &ing movie’ says “All innovative campaigns do well for obvious reasons. But this one has really surpassed even my expectations. Counting all social shares, mentions, tweets etc, exposure for the Brand ‘&Pictures’ as a result of the ‘never &ing movie campaign’, has gone to several hundreds of thousands, possibly crossed million. All of this essentially drives home the point that the initiative is perhaps tending to become one of the better case studies of Ideation Led Digital initiatives in India and perhaps even the world. The fact that there is almost 50% mobile engagement proves that people are constantly following the campaign and engaging at will. This is PURELY because of the power of the idea and digital execution. “

    He further added, “The compelling part of the idea is that it hands control to consumers … and consumers love it! Especially when brands recognize that consumers are cognitive and intelligent in their approach. In my opinion – that’s what made consumers align so easily with the concept. They felt ONE with it and a part of it. And most importantly – it is a TOTALLY FUN experience which is yet serious and non-frivolous. It lends a sense of fulfillment to consumers in co-creating that ultimate ‘Junta Scripted’ movie. This innovative idea is in sync with the brand ethos and helps showcase &pictures as being significantly different from all existing movie channels. The results have proven that we were right in our choice – so far – and the participation by consumers have been phenomenal.“

    Talking about the phenomenally high response to the digital film, Mr. Akash Chawla, Marketing –Head, National Channels, ZEEL, says “The digital film has been extremely successful in reaching out to the right kind of audiences and creating a huge buzz for ‘&pictures’ as a brand. As a movie channel, it has been the perfect medium to engage users with the brand through the creation of a film that is ‘for the people and by the people’. We have urged users to get their creative juices flowing and there have been over 2200 responses for the script and dialogues with thousands liking and following dialogues through the day.”

    “Our data on the campaign has shown us that we have gained a large group of loyal followers who have been following the progress of the film from the stage of inception. These users follow the campaign as they leave their places of study and work leading to a huge spike in traffic between 7-11 PM. Though digital trends in the past show that people have been averse to the idea of signing up, it is encouraging to see that they haven’t resisted the process or let it stop them from participating in the campaign.”

    Join us as we premiere the film that YOU made possible! The film premieres on Monday, August 12 on andpictures.in. Stay tuned!